


Hope's a Bitch

by badboy_fangirl



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-31
Updated: 2013-01-31
Packaged: 2017-11-27 15:31:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/663602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badboy_fangirl/pseuds/badboy_fangirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elena visits Damon in the basement.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hope's a Bitch

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't anything particularly special, I just wanted to get it out of the way before I'm Jossed tomorrow night! Basically a coda to 4x11.

He's not really surprised when he wakes up again and she's there. He knows Stefan's an idiot who would lock him in the basement, but not stand guard. Sometimes Damon wonders how Stefan and Elena managed to stay together as long as they did; because most of the time it's like they never really knew each other at all.

(He could explain that with Stefan hiding who he really is, but he's not sure why Stefan doesn't know Elena better.)

Then again, he doesn't really dwell on their relationship too much. Or, at the very least, he tries very hard not to do comparisons.

(Sometimes he fails.)

"Hi," she says softly. She's just sitting on the floor next to him, holding his hand. She looks tired. 

"Thanks for the pillow and blanket," he murmurs, sinking his head further into the cotton cushion under his head.

The fingers of her free hand skim over his chest, digging slightly into his ribs, as though holding on to him is vitally important, even though he can't move away. "I thought it was pretty heartless of Stefan to just leave you down here like that."

He smothers a laugh. Heartless isn't exactly what it is, but he doesn't correct her. What's between him and Stefan has taken the form of Elena, but it's not really about her.

"I brought you blood, too," she says softly and she holds a bag to his lips.

He takes it because he's dying, and since he can't really die, but dying feels awful, he's not going to torture himself. And if Stefan wanted to put him through it, he damn well should have stayed there and made sure he suffered first hand.

He sucks down the bag pretty quickly, and Elena's fingertips move to soothe his brow. She touches him incessantly, not that he minds. It gives him a feeling of vitality that no amount of blood, bagged or fresh, ever could. Her need to touch him, to reassure herself that he's there and okay somehow reassures him, too.

"How's Jer?" he asks, wincing at the feeling within him that tells him he's still compelled to kill Elena's brother.

"Pretty shaken up, actually. He didn't want to kill you, anymore than you wanted to kill him. If it weren't so awful, it would be sort of funny," she says, her lips tugging into a small grin.

Damon frowns as he finishes his blood bag. "Funny, how?"

"You two. You always snipe at each other, but then you're practically in tears over this, which proves to me, at least, how much you care for one another." Her palm sweeps across his forehead and pushes his hair back off his face. "I mean, I'm sure when you're not compelled anymore, you'll insult him and he'll try to stake you, and it will be business as usual, but when you actually have a chance to kill each other? You wouldn't really do it."

Damon smirks. "I try to learn from my mistakes." He's being flip, trying to keep the smile on her face a little longer. It doesn't work.

She grows serious, and then she leans over to press her lips to his. "I know you do," she whispers.

"I'm not going to ask you to let me out of here," he says.

She nods. "I know." Her breath teases his skin as she straightens up. "Jeremy's going to kill Kol, and end all this. Don't worry, we have a plan."

Damon could murder Stefan, quite easily, and when his brother shows back up, he might just do that. (He'll pretend he's weaker than he is, and lure Stefan inside. Then he'll snap _his_ neck and set things right.) It's harder than not killing Jeremy to let Elena tuck the blanket around him and go to the door without following her. His strength is slowly coming back, but he'll need more than one blood bag to replenish himself.

Knowing there is a plan, and he doesn't have a part in it is much harder for him than anything else he's ever endured, quite possibly.

She pulls the door closed and looks through the bars at him. "I love you, Damon," she says, her voice gentle. "We're gonna fix this."

"Don't tell Stefan," he says, because that's the one thing he'd like her to do if the sire bond really has any effect.

She laughs, but it sounds bitter and it twists his heart just a little. "Don't worry. I wouldn't tell him if he were the last person on earth."

He can still see her face, but he knows she's got to leave before either of them breach this tentative impasse. "I love you, too," he finally says, because they haven't done that, haven't exchanged it at the same time, when they were both on the same page before.

"I know," she whispers, and he knows she's crying now. "I'll be back as soon as Kol's dead."

Damon's fingers clench on the blanket over him. She disappears from sight, and he realizes this is really how the other half lives. When hope is all you have, it's enormous, and irritating, and blindingly brilliant.

He closes his eyes, and tries to imagine the world realistically.

(He can't do that anymore; Elena loves him.)


End file.
